Paris,
Dec 11 (DPA) As the world economy slides deeper into recession,
global oil demand will shrink in 2008 for the first time in
25 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday.

"Global
oil demand has been revised down in both 2008 and 2009, given
a much starker contraction in the OECD than expected, and
early signs of weakness in non-OECD countries, notably in
Asia," the IEA said in its Monthly Oil Report, issued
in Paris.

World
oil demand is forecast to average 85.8 million barrels per
day (mb/d) in 2008, the IEA said. This is 0.2 percent, or
0.2 mb/d less than in 2007.

"The
global demand contraction expected in 2008 will be the first
since 1983," the IEA said.

Global
oil demand is expected to rise slightly next year, to 86.3
mb/d, or 0.5 percent more than in 2008, the IEA said. However,
this still represents a significant downward revision from
the agency's last prognosis, in November.

The
decline in oil demand has been especially marked in North
America, particularly in the US.

"This
demand weakness continued to be mostly centred in the United
States (minus 9.4 percent year-on-year)," the IEA said.

The
agency said the "extremely gloomy picture of oil demand"
in the United States was caused by "a financial crisis,
high oil prices, devastating hurricanes and, to cap it all,
an officially recognised economic recession."